Stockhausen world premiere and Olympic performance up for RPS Awards

The shortlists for this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Awards have been unveiled. Among this year’s nominations are Birmingham Opera Company’s world premiere of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht and the LSO’s contribution to the London Olympics Opening Ceremony.

The shortlist for the RPS Awards, which recognise live classical music performances in the UK, also includes, in the conductor category – supported by BBC Music Magazine – Andris Nelsons (right), Kirill Karabits and Richard Farnes.

The world premiere of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht, staged by Birmingham Opera Company, is shortlisted in the Opera and Music Theatre category alongside ENO’s production of Caligula, English Touring Opera’s autumn season and Aldeburgh Music and the Barbican Centre’s joint production of Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!.

The performers on the shortlist for the instrumental award are percussionist Colin Currie, and pianists Francesco Piemontesi (who won Best Newcomer at last year's BBC Music Magazine Awards) and Steven Osborne. Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is shortlisted for the singer award, as are tenor Bryan Hymel, baritone Bryn Terfel and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.

This year’s shortlist also features a nod to the Olympics Opening Ceremony, specifically for the LSO’s On Track initiative which saw 80 young musicians perform an arrangement of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ from the Enigma Variations at the Opening Ceremony in 2012.

The winners of the RPS Awards will be announced in a ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel on 14 May and BBC Music Magazine will reveal all the winners in our next issue, on sale 15 June.

Large-Scale Composition
Gerald Barry: The Importance of Being Earnest
Harrison Birtwistle: In Broken Images
Julian Anderson: The Discovery of Heaven

Learning and ParticipationAnthem for a Child (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment)Cycle Song (Proper Job Theatre Company and Scunthorpe Co- operative Junior Choir)
Drake Music Scotland: Technophonia by Oliver Searle (New Music 20x12)
LSO On Track at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics